“Seatbelts pay,” said Randy Jones, of Stella, whose tractor-trailer was struck by an S.T. Wooten diesel truck at the N.C. 43-N.C. 55 intersection around noon Wednesday.

What looked like a horrific collision between the two trucks stopped southbound traffic on N.C. 43 for two hours and slowed traffic flow on N.C. 55, but did not injure either vehicle’s driver.

City of New Bern Police and Fire departments responded to the scene. Jones and the other driver, identified as William Anderson of New Bern, spoke with officials as crews worked on the overturned semi and empty containers, which blocked both southbound lanes of N.C. 43. Some diesel fuel also was spilled on N.C. 55.

“We were very fortunate on this,” said New Bern Police Officer Jason Williams. “It could have been a lot worse.”

Williams, reading from an accident report prepared by incident coordinator Officer Stephen Williams, said, “According to two independent witnesses, the driver of the S.T. Wooten truck ran the traffic light on N.C. 55 where the semi-truck had the right of way. It hit the back rear tire with enough force that it caused the whole semi to lay over on its right side.

“The accident caused damages to the big rig truck and the S.T. Wooten truck and the huge metal pole with the traffic lights that DOT (N.C. Department of Transportation) estimates will cost $20,000 to $25,000 to replace,” Williams said. “The cargo boxes hit the pole and bent it.”

“Fortunately there were no injuries; nobody got transported to the hospital,” he said.

Extra precautions were taken to prevent fire because of the diesel spill, including DOT bringing sand to soak up the spilled fuel.

Anderson was charged with running a red light, police said.

Sue Book can be reached at 252-635-5665 or sue.book@newbernsj.com. Follow her on Twitter@SueJBook.